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Zombie Birds, Astronaut Fish, And Other Weird Animals (2013)

by Becky Crew(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1440560269 (ISBN13: 9781440560262)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Adams Media Corporation

review 1: Fun little book with lots of very short bits about crazy animals. Most are no more than a page and a half. That part of the book gets 3 stars. I had to deduct 1 star for the filler material. In an attempt to be humorous the author has added little bits before or after the actual content on the animal. These parts only remotely relate to the animal and are usually humorous only if you like high school grade humor. I skipped most of them and would have much rather had all the pages they took up dedicated to the actual content of the book.
review 2: This is a strange and wonderful journey through some of the most bizarre and strange elements of natural history - reminding us that we're by no means the weirdest and complex species on earth.This is a very funny... more, accessible book - I haven't studied much in the way of biology, and yet I found the register well placed - so it really is for those who, like me, might read the odd copy of 'New Scientist' or go to Wikipedia after hearing something interesting on an episode of "QI" but might not have the scientific literacy needed to find this information out on their own.And although the book doesn't push a conservationist or climate change agenda, you are left with the understanding of just how precious and fragile the eco system can be.I heard Crew on radio accompanying Dr Karl - and I thought she was very interesting and obviously has a deep curiosity about an area that few get to venture to.Blogs-to-books can be a tricky business - I can see how this concept works as a blog, but as a book it was very episodic (so I did read this in stages, not in one go.)The style involved presenting the information about the animal, but bookended by jokes about how the animal might go picking up a mate in a bar, or get away with a crime, or other fun human behaviour. This could have worked better - or been completely removed - because it's the kind of humour that either works incredibly well, or not at all - and might not work so well with international audiences.At times it was a little difficult to see who the target audience was - it's very funny, and obviously written by a young Australian woman, however I probably wouldn't give it to a precocious 11 year old to get them interested in science and biology because some of the jokes are not age-appropriate. But then "adults" (ie people unlike me who are over the age of 26 and still giggle at the "tits" in the title) might skip the "silly" parts.So my star rating is somewhere between - I find the project interesting but the delivery not quite hitting the mark. less

Download links for: Zombie Birds, Astronaut Fish, and Other Weird Animals

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